Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Hands-On: You’ll Come Back, But Be Gone For A While

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Prediction: It’s going to make its target and likely much more.

A little Kickstarter action, anyone?

Developer Owlcat Games is hard at work on a follow up to the incredibly deep Pathfinder: Kingmaker, which combined gameplay inspired by classic PC role-playing games such as the Baldur’s Gate, Fallout, Fallout 2 and Arcanum with a huge kingdom building system in a massive game with a pretty loyal following worldwide. It’s not at all a simple game as it sticks closely to the tabletop experience down to complex rules that need to be learned and implemented lest failure be your primary option.

Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous is a more an even more ambitious follow up, but tailored a lot better and not a direct “sequel”, adding in a wealth of changes to the game engine, a load of new classes to play as and packing in a ton of content. Owlcat is clearly in it for the long haul. This is good, however, as the hands-on demo’s Siege at Drezen sequence was pretty thrilling and left me wanting more. Before the demo, game Director Alexander Mishulin spoke and I got a wealth of lore on new classes, Mythic Path characters such as Angel, Lich, Aeon, and Trickster, some of the overall goals in the story line and more brain-filling content. There’s a lot going on here and Mishulin noted the final version will allow for many options and choices for new as well as returning players (which means a ton of replay value, naturally).

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This is going to be as deep as it gets and then some, but it was also noted that the dev team has been listening to feedback from the first game and is tailoring this new experience to be a bit more flexible for new players as a option. that certainly doesn’t mean the game will be easy or “casual”, mind you. The depth outside of the combat will include a number of “pay attention” elements that will have players glued to their PC’s as they dive into what’s looking like an extremely comprehensive solo campaign.

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Rustler: Get Medieval in This Hilarious GTA-Inspired Game

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Yep. This needs to be played for this reference alone.

 

First of all, when I went to install the Rustler Alpha demo on Steam, I was greeted with Grand Theft Horse as a title on the game installer, which was magnificent. Indie developer Justus Games knows which side of the bread their butter in on. Second of all, for an alpha, the game is coming together pretty well. It’s just up on Kickstarter now and is there waiting for you to pledge or the drunken sot with the sword in the banner above may come for you. He’ll be right up your alley if you’re not right up his, as it were. That alley will be dark ad have a few rodents in it, most likely.

Gameplay is much the original Grand Theft Auto and GTA 2 isometric top down stuff but rendered in a nicer game engine with some lusher environments. As with the aforementioned games, there’s humor in all the mayhem you cause and yes, the old ultra-violence means it’s not a child’s game for sure. But there’s that nifty cathartic thing going on here that just works because you get immediate results from your attempts at criminal behavior (or, assorted guards and villagers don’t just stand by while you crime away), so expect to fight as you run run or ride a swiped horse away from trouble, or cause more pain for as long as you can. It’s your choice, but the lead’s character’s seemingly perpetually drunken state can cause him to fall off a horse or otherwise be dismounted.

 

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Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Coming to Kickstarter in Feburary

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Something’s cooking over at Owlcat…

If you’re fan of old-school PC classics like the Baldur’s Gate series and other Infinity Engine games, Keep an eye of this, please. Developer Owlcat Games will be launching a crowdfunding drive via Kickstarter for Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, the followup to Pathfinder: Kingmaker, which by the way is on sale for about 20 hours more at Fanatical (go get it!). There’s a lot of changes on the way, but I’ll reveal a few when the Kickstarter goes live on February 4, 2020 and I can report on some hands-on time spent with a build.

You’ll also want to go sign up for info on the game on Owlcat’s website, as this will get you a stunning free 178 page artbook PDF from the first game that actually surprised me at how much it contained. A bit of info about the new title and some nice screen and art is below the jump.

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It’s Back: R-Type Final 2 Gets a 2nd Funding Run

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Click me for more info. You know you want to.

It’s baaaaaack… (which is a good thing, folks).

Here we go again, because the original Kickstarter only ran for a week and left a few folks out of the loop. Now you have a second chance to get in on this crowdfunding action thanks to a new push to get in those folks who felt left out. Head below the jump for the press release and a few more screens.

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Ollie The Useless Robot: And Now, A Word From Our Sponsor

I’ve actually never played a game from Flippfly Games (although I need to at some point) and that trailer above makes this new game look far too frustrating to even go near. But it’s exactly the type of game that fits my current mood and condition so I get to laugh and point at someone else doing the eternal balance thing and failing miserably at it. Is this some sort of metaphor for life these days? Mmmmaybe. Well, at least I think so.

Hey, it may be an experimental project in Flippfly’s Tiny Games series, but if the developer get some Patreon-fueled ad dollars up into a TV or internet spot and a few weeks to get console and mobile ports done, I’d bet everyone with some sort of game system this will run on will be flipping and flopping with renewed purpose. Hell, I’d even be playing it just on the off chance that I’d actually complete a stage and not want to jump up and down on my controller of choice. Unless it’s a Switch controller with drift issues that actually helps me win big because of that particular design flaw nonsense (hi, Nintendo, grrrr!)

-GW

Phantom Gear Funded: Mega Cat’s Got The Magic Touch, Again

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Mega Cat, on a roll with mustard.

Phantom Gear is officially a physical and digital reality on the “it’s funded!” front and that’s a great thing. Excellent, in fact and yes, I dropped some coins into this particular fountain not long after finding out the game was going the crowdfund route. It’s always great to see, read about and eventually get the chance to play new retro games, especially from a company so devoted to producing some mighty fine ones. The game has indeed made its Kickstarter target, but you can still contribute to its success here.

Now, if only I had a few spare thousand bucks to drop on everything Mega Cat makes so I can add it all to the library, I’d be an even happier camper.

-GW

Funded, Plus: R-Type Final 2 Hits Its Target

There’s certainly a boom in things going BOOM, as the arcade shooter market has made quite a comeback over the years. In reality, it really never went away as plenty of smaller indie developed and fan-made games can be found as digital and physical retail titles with a little bit of online legwork. That said, R-Type holds its legendary status to this day simply because it’s pure brilliance from start to finish. Granzella’s strategy for a super-short Kickstarter for R-Type 2 Final has paid off big time with as of this writing, some 543K has been pledged to bring this final Final to life and with under four days ti go, you could say the sky’s the limit if that funding hits some of the stretch goals noted on the Kickstarter page.

Personally, I’m hoping the game gets up to that goal where Granzella can recreate levels from previous R-Type games just so this stage from R-Type Final gets redone in glorious HD. Hell, drop a bag of money on my head (ow) and I’ll throw it at Granzella just for this stage alone.

-GW

 

R-Type Final 2 Kickstarter: Welcome to the Buy-Do Empire!

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Well, It looks as if Granzella’s gambit is paying off so far. Only a day in and the R-Type Final 2 Kickstarter is over halfway to its initial target funding goal. That’s quite good news, folks. I’ll admit to being a tad skeptical about that seven-day time frame to put in a pledge, but I see that Granzella thought this through a bit and is relying on the most die-hard fans of the genre to pony up their pledges and get fellow shmup fanatics to hop on in and play in the same intergalactic pool.

Excellent. Yes, I’m going to pledge a few bucks myself before the campaign concludes. I just need to figure out what I can afford and what sort of extra I get for my pledge.

-GW

R-Type Final 2 Kickstarter: Live Worldwide Soon

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Urgent subspace communication received, despite the efforts of the Bydo Empire:

May 31, 2019 Granzella Inc.

Help Us Spread the Word:

“R-TYPE FINAL 2” Crowdfunding Campaign Launch

With the permission of IREM SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INC., Granzella is now developing the latest title of the side-scrolling shooter “R-Type” series to bring it out to the world.  However, we are just a small, powerless studio so we decided to launch a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign to accomplish the project.

In order to make our crowdfunding campaign a success, we need your cooperation. Please lend us a helping hand to spread the word about the R-Type Final 2 as well as the Kickstarter campaign on your website and through social media.

Hmmm. It looks as if IREM and developer Granzella really need your help in stopping the Bydo Empire but good. Kicking off worldwide on June 3, the campaign is for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Steam versions of the game. There will be a number of digital and physical options and backer rewards to choose from depending on the amount pledged.

The Kickstarter campaign starts at the same time around the world. The estimated launch times for each world time zones are as follows:

Japan Standard Time (JST) At Midnight on Tuesday, June 4 (at 24:00 on
Monday, June 3), 2019
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) At 3 P. M. on Monday, June 3, 2019 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) At 11 A. M. on Monday, June 3, 2019 Pacific Daylight Time(PDT) At 8 A. M. on Monday, June 3, 2019
* The campaign will last for about a week.
* The end date will be announced on the first day of the Kickstarter campaign.

UPDATE: We’ve just received images from the ongoing conflict along with a brief video that reveals only a hint of the struggle at hand.

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It looks like it’s time to suit up and prepare for takeoff, folks. Rewards await the brave souls who step up and strap in for the hard fight ahead. Expect an update once the campaign goes live, of course.

-GW

There’s a Dreadful Bond Tech Demo. Go Take it For a Spin, Please

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With its Kickstarter in its final week, developer Clod Studio has released a gorgeously gloomy tech demo for Dario Argento’s Dreadful Bond which makes for an excellent look at the game’s environments as well as some impressive audio design in the form of a haunting piano tune and some appropriately unsettling sound effects. There’s no “action” here to speak of, but I’m betting some of you easily frightened types will feel more than a little creeped out by the strikingly realistic visuals and those assorted ambient sound effects that will have you stop moving your mouse around because it feels as if… well, as if something is watching your every move or worse, is lurking in the same space you are just over your shoulder.

 

 

Wait, that’s just me – I was hungry, poked around in your fridge and made myself a sandwich while I was waiting for you all to download that demo. Er, I hope you don’t mind? Anyway, I’m going to exit, stage left. Go check out that tech demo for Dreadful Bond and pledge towards its completion, I say. Also, you need a new loaf of bread and maybe some Colman’s English Mustard because that boring bright yellow stuff is kinda tame. Okay, Okay, I’m going!

-GW